After a blazing five events France’s Andrea Jolevot holds a tight lead in the decathlon with 3972 points, but just 70 points separate the top five at the end of the first day on Saturday (18).
Czechia’s Sebastian Andrejev currently sits in second with 3931 points and Great Britain’s Douglas Knox is in third with 3916 points.
The Frenchman started strong with a win in the 100m, clocking 10.67 ahead of Andrejev who ran a PB of 10.72, while Lucas Gschier from Austria was third fastest with 10.79.
Though Knox also ran a PB of 11.06 for fourth fastest as five more PB’s were seen in the first event of the decathlon.
It was then Estonia’s Aleksander Metsmaker, who currently sits in fourth overall with 3903 points, that won the long jump with a PB of 7.24m in the third round.
In fact, eight of the top nine in the long jump all jumped PB’s which included Andrejev and Jolevot, and the top three all cleared seven metres.
Jovlevot and Knox both threw a PB in the shot put, 14.97m and 14.88m respectively, but it was the Netherlands’ Rens Klinkhamer who won the third event with a big PB of 15.64m.
Though Andrejev lost crucial points as he only measured 12.06m, more than a metre off his PB of 13.62m, allowing the French athlete to pull slightly ahead.
Italy’s Ivan Davide Muraro equalled his PB of 1.94m to take the win and a big haul of points in the high jump, with Poland’s Kacper Sobieralski jumping the second highest with 1.91m.
Andrejev got some points back on the French athlete in the high jump as he jumped 1.88m, the same height as Metsmaker who PB’d, while Jolevot equalled his PB at 1.82m, the same height as Knox.
Then in the 400m, Andrejev ran an incredible 400m clocking a decathlon championship record of 48.60, while Knox impressed with a PB of 49.03 ahead of Jolevot in third with another PB of 49.44.
Despite the intense heat and completing four events, an astonishing 13 out of the 15 decathletes ran a PB in the 400m to close out the opening day of their competition.
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